London, Lee Valley Athletics Stadium, and thirty of us gathered to play Mortem et Gloriam. The Skullrollers even is always an open event, and after all the months of lockdown painting, it was fun to see what everyone would use. Five games, sounds awesome.
Why Hausa?
If you have not been reading my blog, I was gifted a full War and Empire III kickstarter army by the Great Bill Wilcox, and converted them to Hausa, with a few extras like the camp to honour my granddad Jim Whalley. I set myself a simple goal, win a game.
The runners and riders (unfortunately Ray and Matt could not make it, but Huub stepped in all the way from Belgium).
I was met by Roger with and a bottle of wine for Jo (and the extra unit of Tureags that I was borrowing off him, all the way from Switzerland).
Game one. Laurence (Cid) Donohoe with his Awesome Hussites
A beautiful army and an complete gentleman to play, this is a fabulous army, and with the draw out the day before I knew it would be a hard fight against Cid and his almighty Hussites backed up by Polish knight allies!
Oh... drat!
Not a good choice for a heavy cavalry heavy army, as cavalry is massively disadvantaged against the long range artillery and barricades of the Hussite forces, and his knights were better than all of my cavalry put together, let alone my tribal infantry. I set myself the hard challenge of getting 6 points from this one.
I tried to convince Cid that his wagons were autobroken due to termites as he was invading Nigeria (he didn't buy it).
Cid deployed in line, I aimed my decent infantry down the centre, my shooty archers on the right, and my horse to deal with Cid's inevitable knight counterpunch from behind the mobile wall. 
Wooden spoon firmly attached to my table! Would I win it back?
Moving forwards, trying to get round the end of Cid's lines. Well, it's a slim chance.
Cid deals as I try and get my cows into the wagons. No chance, they were shot down before they could make a mooooove! My poor skirmishers (literally poor) were being shot to pieces to as it gives the shooter an upgrade to green dice.
The wall moves, it's like an 80s video game! Skirmishers skirmish, cows approach slowly, knights threaten, giraffes look on bemused.
I threw several units forwards at the four central-not-artillery-armed wagons, on the left my cavalry tries to avoid trouble. I could dismount them, but they would become combat shy, so not worth it, and they would be run over by his counterpunching knights! 
Cows try to charge. Cid is sending knights round the flanks to take on my loose, combat shy bows (otherwise known as deadmeat).
And it all goes so wrong. Cid's knights break free, and with 6 yellow dice, rolls 4 skulls and a wound! That unit of 8 foot drop to... tatters!
I tried to react to Cid's cavalry, but it would be too little, to late! My short spear bows had charged the wagons, and had shattered on impact as they missed and were cut to pieces.
My cavalry contacts Cid's knights, and his dice refuse to roll anything without a skull on it! Ho hum, there goes the six points! I did kill a base or two, but not enough to count.
Where Cid lost bases, I was losing units! I knew my number was up and admitted I was beat. We talked through possibilities, and Cid noted that he would smash through my cavalry, leaving him exposed for the superior guard cav to take in the flank.
We shook on 2-15, Cid deserved it. I was completely out played, and my dice really wanted a lie-in!
Cid, being an absolute gentleman, still bought me a pint!
Not quite on the bottom, but pretty close. Would I achieve my goal of one win? (Looking at this now, there were a LOT of 15s, and not much else there).
Game 2: vs Phillip Powell and his Ottoman Turks.
I was expecting to meet Jannisaries and Serbian allies, heavy hitters and utterly nasty.
Nope, Phillip had brought a pure 10 four stand cavalry 2 skilled shooter light horse, the army was bulked out with a 9 stand unit of poor, unprotected, combat-shy, levy and two archer units in front of his camp! That's a big army, if it has enough cards he will dance round me and shoot me to pieces.
I like a challenge!
The armies deploy. The giraffes look at Phillip's floating cinc in their usual state of puzzlement.
,
Three average cavalry decided to pin the bulk of Phillips archers, knowing I was going to lose them, while the camels and the superior cavalry assisted by the cows, turned to punch through. They all swung inwards to meet Phillip's heavies that had swung also to meet us.
The infantry advances en masse, mostly to get into the scrub on the right to hide from the better troops! Camels ignore scrub, so off they trotted (do camels trot?) through it while their cavalry and my melee expert infantry form a blocking line. The aim, force Phillip's cavalry to evade my charges, and get bottled up by my cavalry. 
Phillip reacted by moving his infantry round, and his three of his cavalry to shooting range of my superiors and cattle staaaammppeed, his superiors threaten on the far right.
My evasion prediction comes true, as the superiors shoot a base off the cows and my superiors avoid the fire and close to point blank. Phillip's floating CinC watches on while the giraffes wander over, being nosy.
Four cavalry and two light horse in 4s vs three cavalry in 6s. This will be tight! Can I holds here without giving Phillip a win?
It looks like carnage! One of his cavalry has moved up (centre) to pin my melee expert foot, light horse try to pin my superior tuaregs, and my camels wheel in across the backfield, while my bows and skirmishers scramble for cover! 
Leaving the cows behind, my guard cavalry close on Phillip's horse, while behind them his light horse get in the way. His cavalry break away from my charging foot and superior Tuareg (Swiss illegal immigrant) cavalry, who catch them in the rear after they roll very low to run away! To their right lurks the ominous spectre of more of my camels. 
This is NOT a good result if you are a unit of four cavalry, double red from one base tears a hole in their reality!
Phillip does not even have the cards to turn to face. Admittedly, his two black dice kill a base of Tuaregs, but then his unit disintergrates. (2-0)
On the left, the best way to deal with a line of shooty cavalry is to fragment them as much as possible. Despite a flank charge by Mr Powell, I engage him with my horse and chase him back to his hill, taking shooty losses yes, but still managing to impact.
Talking of impact, in front of the camp it all happens, after clearing out his cavalry forces, camels and gaurd cavalry plough into loose formed archers and loose poor combat shy infantry. Meanwhile, two units Ottoman cavalry charge my camels on the flank to protect his camp.
A closer shot of the action! The guard lost a base to bowfire on the approach (elite of the army, mutter mutter).
While to the left the superior Tuareg cavalry trap an Ottoman cavalry unit against their own bows (Phillip did not have enough space to evade, this is after he shifted to avoid friends!).
My flanked cavalry, depite causing two losses on the Ottomans, disintergrate (2-2). Phillip had been lining up for another flank charge too.
As do my surroundcamels (2-4) . That wooden spoon might have been coming back to me!
His cavalry sensibly turns to get away, while the other unit turns about to threaten the flank of my camels which are being held up by the archers and taking losses! My infantry has moved into two useful positions, my skirmishers ready to shoot if he charges my camels, and my bows and skirmishers to scare away the beaten up cavalry.
Needn't have worried, my guard cavalry smash through the poor levy (4-4) and then pile into the camp killing a general on the way past!
See that hole, that's where his unit used to be! Slight correction, units, as his archers also disintegrated (6-4), allowing the camels to pursue and try to avoid that flank charge, and break the beaten up cavalry with a KaB test (8-4).
Or not! The archers ran away short, leaving the camels backs exposed. Drat! Both units have lost a base and also have a general attached, to add to the confusion!
Superior Tuaregs and melee expert Hausa engage superior Ottoman cavalry. This one is a pretty foregone conclusion I'm afraid, they break (10-4) leaving the archers behind to collapse under the weight of horse flash and psychotic Hausa warriors (12-4). 
On the other flank, all three of my units had perished, but they had held up a sizeable portion of Phillip's forces so they could not flank my main attack (12-8)
But with the fall of his camp, it was all over, (15-8) and the Hausa ride triumphant into their win for the weekend. Classic game, all played in great humour and now onto round three for the day.
This was quite a jump up the table for me, and now the Wooden Spoon slipped my grasp, I was in danger of getting smacked around by Hubris, Schadenfreude and Checkov (Sounds like a bad firm of accountants)... Plus I had had another beer kindly provided by Steve Charlton, so I was in line to make really silly mistakes! Hic!
Game 3: vs Adrian Pifield and Early Arab Conquest.
Adrian, firm family friend, had replumbed and rebuilt our house last year in exchange for painting armies for all eternity. Most of that which had been painted was facing me now! Arab conquest is a solid foot army with many decent cavalry. Superior melee expert sheildwall foot, kind of deadens my devastating charge from my mounted. Might have to get clever here (after beer, unlikely).
Adrian has become a decent player recently, so this was going to be a difficult match-up. Forces deploy and it is wall-to-wall superior melee expert foot, in one rank where he needs to kill me, and dropping to two where he needs to deaden my devastating charge. Clever. He has some naff bows gaurd his camp and three TuGs of 4 long spear horse lurk in the backfield to pick off my flanks (also painted by Roger and smuggled in from Switzerland, hence the near identicalness to mine). In case you are wondering (and you are probably not) all the terrain fell into the ocean!
My infantry held the right, while my two cavalry/camelry masses picked a unit each to attack. 
Look, the cows can do damage! On impact the cause two wounds on white dice! 
And for pure comedy gold, they expand in melee, like a marshmellow in a vacuum.
On the farthest rightmost flank my skirmish javelins pays for themselves for the weekend by chosing to run away, and at the same time causes two wounds on one of Adrian's units, which also slows him down JUST enough so he cannot catch me, even with the -1 on the roll for being poor!! 
My guard cavalry impact on his caalry (his line to the left had contracted to let them through) while my Tuaregs made good on the mess my cows had made, both causing kills on impact and breaking units in melee. 
Woth the break throughs (4-0) and Adrain tries to swamp my guards with two more cavalry units. Honestly, it does not work as his flankers were damaged by the KaB and then my superiors turned and smacked him right back, both his units would perish under the might of Queen Amina (8-0)!
On the seashore, his previously skirmisher damaged unit is shot down by one of my archers, while the other is contacted by a rather beaten up unit, he started on a 6, I started on an 8, would it be enough (considering I am unprotected, combat shy and he is superior melee expert, don't hold your breath folks, it's +4 in his favour, even with a general attached)! Actually, they did win! (10 - something huge as I lost at least two units of my foot somewhere in this mess and my average camels and superior camels had self imolated elsewhere that I forgot to photograph. )
As the tension rose, and Paul, who was driving, wanted to get home, we fought it out to a bitter end, with my superior cavalry riding roughshod into the rear of Adrian's left hand foot, breaking them while sandwiching them with my average cavalry. We took losses, but we also secured the Hausa's second (and completely unexpected) win of the weekend. The Hausa were now ahead of their success curve, in no doubt due to the superior cavalry and Queen Amina being permanantly attached to them. The unit accounted for 3 units on its own and one in consort with average cavalry!
They had won a rather embarressing 15-10, this could easily have gone the other way, but a squeaked win, put me on an impressive 32 points.
As Paul drove home, we chatted and worked out our points, comaping results. Paul was also on 32 points, and then the draw for round 4 came in.
Yes, we wuld play each other in the morning! My closest opponent and one of my good friends. Should be a classic!
Round 4: vs Paul Cummin's Later Polish
We had met earlier, at the end of the summer, to try out these (or similar) armies. It had not gone well for Paul, but now, with a modified army, he was in prime fighting condition, ready to take his revenge and make a bid for his rightly deserved podium place. I did not post that match as we both wanted to keep our lists quiet (or as quiet as me blogging all the developments of my army can be).
Deployment and dealing, it looked fairly positive with our cavalry and camels aligned for a humdinger.
Well, that that doesn't help. On the deal my Turrets demanded extra pay and decided not to take part. Been a while since I've had an unreliable ally! This might spell my complete doom. Maybe I should have saved some points to make him talented! I know Paul will take this advantage to tear me a new one!
Normally, you can wait a fair few turns for the red card that brings allies back to the fight (especially if your opponent holds into theor's, yes Peter, I'm looking at you) but turn 2 and there it is, the Tuaregs are back in the game. Sorry Paul, but here come the camels!
Paul's warwagons move up (more warwagons, great), on the left I moved my melee experts and javelins up to support the camels, and I put my cavalry forces right in his face to pin him back. My grand plan (muhahahaha) was simple, hold Paul back, pray I did not die, and walk some combat shy bows into taking his camp. It was a dream, not sure it was realistic...
The moment Paul dreaded, my cows find his superior fully armoured lancers and pin them. He's only 5 up, but hates them! Why he fears them I don't know I'm offering him free burgers and steaks! 
Maybe it is because hard on their hooves is Queen Amina and the superior cavalry! Paul, being bow armed can fall back.
Not the best set of hands I have been ever been dealt! I really needed slightly more than one green to get a second charge in to break up Paul's line. I also needed more colours to turn my camels to face the approaching cavalry lancers that Paul was bring down on my flank in righteous anger! 
Paul brings three cavalry units into range, and unfortunately those are only my average camels, so chance of winning would be slight here.
Losing one base, my guard cavalry break Paul's fully armoured superior melee expert lancers which have average crossbows who have come forwards from the back rank to support and fill in the gaps in the line. Red and white in combat from Queen Amina against the second line troops was brutal, supported by a green from my overlap is even more nasty. Phew! (2-0)
And then sweep round to catch another cavalry unit (it might have taken me a turn or two, but it was getting tense and I might have forgoten to take photos).
My average cavalry was fighting hard against Paul's superior cavalry, losing, but they are doing their job and stopping him running over my bows sneaking up his camp. Oh, Paul loses another unit here too to my Guard and Queen Amina!
The bows, after two turns of fighting (impact, melee, melee) kerp attacking the camp. The camp hurts us a lot, but we slowly grind it down.(they REALLY needed their attached general).
My two average cavalry units, after offing the superiors (6 points) catch an average unprotected unit and munch that too (8 points). I thought it was another superior, but nope. The wounded units gang up and rake down the six like hyenas on a wounded wildebeest.
Paul's dead pile, almost matched by mine (he very sensibly avoided my infantry and dealt brutally with my camels in the end) as he swarms onto my baseline. 
However, with the (eventual) fall of his camp, I win 15-10 and we both collapsed into a heap of relief, that was bloody close!
I had made it into joint 6th. Three wins for the Hausa, unbelievable, and with Jason pushing the limits of the top place, two African armies in the top 10!
Round 5: vs Mark Hargrave and his Senguko Samurai.
Hold on a minute, back up the bus! Senguko Samurai. Oh blast. I know from taking that army many many times and I know EXACTLY how this army works. (See the rankings), and what it works best against:- cavalry!
Maybe I shouldn't have briefed him on how to use the army at Cross and Crescent.
It's wall-to-wall long spears, backed up by skilled powerbows and/or skilled powerbow armed cavalry. My average cavalry do not want to be anywhere near that, nor do my loose order, combat shy archers, or my other foot, or my camels, or anything in my army!
Apologese for the lack of photos, this really was a tense one for me as I tried to hold any chance of a position.
I tried to take the bows and tepu with firearms on the left. 
Maybe melee expert infantry can take them? Didn't work...
They shattered, and my camels joined them. Bit embarrassing really...
Somehow, I managed to get 3 of Mark's units, including one of his cavalry in melee. Gutted I did not pick up the second unit, I had two units fighting it, but not going well. Utter highlight was the superior longspear armed Bushi charging my combat shy bows and dieing to missile fire! Still 6-15 was a good result, but 8 would have been better!
So, in the end, I managed 3 wins, two losses (both against dedicated anti-cavalry armies), completely unexpected, the army did really well for me, I loved the competition and I think I found a sweet spot in the list.
This was the closest I got to the main prize!
It seriously is amazing, and John Munro was a deserving winner.
What was great news for me was Huub fought long and hard to take the Wooden Spoon back to Belguim, and had proudly displayed it in his cabinet!
The final standing, and I was very proud to achieved 13th place, and if you look just below me in 14th is Paul on the same points for, who only won one game, but caused 10 points in nearly every game he lost, making him the most bloody player which won him a prize. Steve Charlton also picked up an incredibly well deserved 'Best Painted' for his superb Swiss.
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